Harry and Co read
by Gina-Ka-Amaya
Summary: Repost of my 'Harry and Co. read book 1" story, altered to better fit with guidelines. Harry, Hermione, Neville, Voldemort, Snape, and the Malfoys are trapped in the ROR where five books drop onto Neville's head. SLASH. HP/LV
1. And so it begins

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

A/N: My origional story was removed last month for being MST. Since defines MST as "comments inserted in between the flow of a copied story", I've altered the story format and hope this version won't be removed. The new book format will be seen in the next chapter, as this chapter is simply an introduction.

* * *

Harry Potter was thinking. It was only the third day of summer, yet already he had gotten half a dozen owls begging him to continue the DA. What he couldn't understand was why anyone would continue to trust him when he'd been responsible for his godfather's death and his friend's injuries, if he hadn't been so foolish none of it would have happened. But…was it really his fault? It was Dumbledore that had avoided him all year, Dumbledore who had assigned Snape to teach him occlumency knowing how much they hated each other, Dumbledore who hadn't bothered to explain why he had to learn the mind arts. The more he thought on it the angrier he got, it all came back to Dumbledore; even his godfathers imprisonment was ultimately his fault. He was beginning to expect it had been Dumbledore who performed the fidelius on his parent's home; he must have known who the secret keeper was. He'd looked into the spell; the caster couldn't hide beneath the charm or serve as secret keeper, so who else would his parents have trusted to perform the spell?

If he couldn't trust Dumbledore to lead the fight against Voldemort and do what was best for everyone, he'd have to do it himself. With this thought he finally understood what had to be done. His friends deserved to know his suspicions about Dumbledore and, more importantly, they needed to know how to defend themselves. So he sent out a reply to the classmates he knew were trustworthy enough to help him form his own side in the war. This, regrettably, meant that he had to exclude Ron (who he just couldn't trust not to get jealous or angry and turn on him). His letters went as follows:

Dear (Hermione, Neville, Luna, Susan, Colin, Dennis, Seamus, Padma, Parvati, Dean, Fred, George, Ginny)

I don't think I will be continuing the DA. I will however, be starting a similar group with a new name.. I feel that you all deserve to know my suspicions about Dumbledore, he's knowingly endangered all of our lives year after year. I have decided to fight this war MY way for once and I hope you'll join me. I'll probably ask for help in situations like last year, so I can't promise you won't end up hurt. I'll understand if you don't reply, but I ask that you keep this information to yourself and take a good look at Dumbledore before you follow his every word.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

And so, it began.

The next part of his plan wasn't nearly as hard. If he wanted to fight the war without Dumbledore he needed to know what kind of supplies he could afford and work on how others saw him; he needed to go shopping and figure out his finances. The hard part was getting into London without the Order noticing. Deciding that bribery was his best option, he opened his trunk, pulled out the small amount of muggle money he always kept for emergencies, and made his way downstairs to find his Uncle.

"Uncle Vernon"

"What Boy?"

"I need a ride to London and back. I'll give you £100 if you take me."

"You think I'm a fool boy? You don't have that kind of money. What are you playing at?"

"I'm not playing at anything Vernon. I saved the left over money I get from my school scholarship."

Harry could swear he could see the cogs turning in his uncle's head as he thought this over.

"Fine boy. It just so happens I planned to go to town today anyway. Go get in the car."

The first thing he did once he'd entered the ally was head to Gringotts and sign up for a new type of debit card-like device which he'd seen a few slytherins using last term and knew would be a lot more convenient then heavy bags of gold. Next he exchanged a few gallons for pounds, thankful that he didn't have to ride down to his vault; on his way out however, he was stopped by a goblin that he recognized right away.

"Harry Potter, we've been attempting to contact you about the contents of your godfathers will."

"I never received any word from you." Harry assured him, already knowing who to blame.

"Regardless, I would like you to follow me to my office for the official reading"

"Sure Griphook, but I thought you were just a teller?"

To say that Griphook was shocked was an understatement, few human bothered to tell the difference between one goblin and the next. He (like most goblins) cared little about the goings on of humans, but decided it would be a wise decision to keep an eye on this one; he might prove useful.

"I was promoted last year. Follow me"

He wasted no time getting to business once they entered a rather small office off to the side of the main hall.

"The last will of Mr. Black states that The Black Estate and title should be passed on to you, entitling you to immediate emancipation and full access to your vaults. He also pre-paid for an bloodline test. This will tell us if you are a blood or magic heir to any dormant family lines." Griphook spoke, handing him a pile of papers and a small dagger.

"What do I need to do?"

"Just sign your name where indicated, these are the inheritence papers. Once your done with that you need to cut yourself with the dagger and place two drops of blood on this parchment" he explained as he rolled out a piece of shockingly white parchment on his desk "The test should take about half an hour for results"

Quickly skimming the paperwork, Harry did as he was told and sat back in his chair.

"Why would Sirius want me to take a bloodline test? And what do you mean by dormant lines?"

"Dormant lines are bloodlines that no longer have active members or heirs to claim them. As for why your godfather wished for you to take the test, he likely believed that you hold claim to an unidentified line."

As he said this, names could be seen writing themselves out on the paper.

"Ah, you appear to be the magical heir of the Peverell family, the Aapep family, and the Lamarr family. The Peverell family appears to be an ancestral line from your fathers side of the family, while the Aapep and Lamarr families are from your maternal line. You can claim lordship of these families now if you wish. You also appear to hold heirship to the Slytherin and Nikolai families; Slytherin through magic transfer, and Nikolai through your maternal line. Any questions?"

"YES! How can I possibly by the heir of Slytherin? And my mother was muggleborn, how could I possibly hold any titles through her?" Harry yelled, getting up to pace the room

"Since you are listed as the magical heir, and not a blood heir, it is likely that you fulfilled some requirement for line status and/or have some magical connection to the family. As for your other inheritances, Gringotts does not hold any additional information concerning your mother's family tree, though I would assume you are either mistaken about her blood status or she was descended from squibs. I can tell you however, that the reason you are listed as heir to the Nikolai family and not Lord is because there are two surviving members of the family residing in St. Petersburg. I would suggest contacting them to discuss your heirship and any relation they held to your mother. Now, are there any other questions you wish to ask?"

Calming down and choosing to simply ignore this new information for the moment, he sat back down to ask the more immediately important questions, "Yeah. First, does my emancipation mean I can perform magic outside of school, and second, can I get a list of everything I've inherited?

"Your emancipation grants you all the rights and privileges of an adult. So, as long as you're enrolled in a wizarding school, you're free to perform magic. The tracking charms on your wand should have disintegrated the moment you signed the papers. As for an inventory of your inheritances, if you're willing to sign a waiver allowing the bank to access your vaults and properties, we can perform a full assessment and inventory of all valuables for a fee. For now, I can tell you that you have inherited three vaults each from the Black and Potter lines and a single vault from the Lamarr and Aapep lines."

"Why so many vaults from Sirius and my parents?"

"It is traditional for older families to separate currency, heirlooms and family storage into separate vaults. The Lamarr and Aapep lines went dormant prior to this custom."

Seeing that Griphook was beginning to grow annoyed with him, and not having any other pressing questions, Harry simply signed the paperwork allowing for the inventory and paid the required fee. With this, Harry was lead back to the cart area and a small goblin brought him down to his vaults. After taking a quick look around and grabbing a large number of books that caught his eye from various vaults, he returned to the Leakey Cauldron and spent the rest of the night going over them. When Vernon arrived the next morning and drove him back to privet drive, he quickly paid his uncle and went up to his room.

Time flew fast for him as he studied and practiced his newly learnt magics. He even discovered he had an affinity for animagi transformations, and quickly learnt that he couldn't even do that normally. Instead of being able to turn into a single non-magical creature, he was able to turn into any animal he focused on, although the first time he changed into any new form it hurt like hell. According to what little information he could find in the books he'd grabbed, it was a rare trait that sometimes cropped up in old wizarding families. It was apparently very similar to Tonk's shifting ability.

September first rolled around soon enough and Harry once again found himself boarding the train.

* * *

Three weeks later, he and Hermione sat by the fire talking.

"What are we going to rename the DA?" Hermione asked after casting a few anti-spy wards.

"I'm not sure, you have any suggestions."

"Humm…what about…the Defense Alliance. I mean we're not dark, but we're not light either so we're defending the middle ground."

"That'll work for now; at least it'll still be the DA. But let's see what the others think first".

"Speaking of which, why did you insist on us not interacting with other DA members?"

"Malfoy and Cho know everyone, and I want it to look like we've stopped meeting together. Anyway, I want to check out the ROR tonight to make sure everything is set up for tomorrow's meeting. You want to join me?"

"Sure. We can set up now so we can get started right away once everyone gets there. But, what are we going to do about Ron?"

"I'm sick and tired of him acting without thinking first. It's too dangerous to tell him anything until he learns some self-control, we just have to go on without him for now."

* * *

Meanwhile, in an uncharted manor, paced a rather pissed off Voldemort; once again annoyed at him-self for waking up with a rather _uncomfortable_ problem, after having another one of _those_ dreams. It was one thing to wake up after having a rather hot and sweaty dream about fucking your greatest rival, but quite another to wake up after a blissfully arousing dream in which said rival was fucking your brains out. This was made even worse considering the age difference. Worst of all, was that he always woke up right before he could thoroughly enjoy himself. This off course led to a rather embarrassing need to finish on his own. The dreams had started almost a year ago and had quickly escalated into their current maddening state.

Standing off in the corner were Snape and Lucius, both having quickly grown used to being called down in the middle of the night; they were the only two their lord trusted enough to actually consider as 'friends'. Thus they were also the only ones he had spoken to about his troubles (though that was only because he'd had them brew different dreamless sleep potions for him- though none worked). Of course, they still only knew the basics: Voldemort had the hots for Potter, constantly dreamt of him, and woke up in the middle of the night. At the moment though, they were whispering quietly to each other about their lord.

"Any news about our lords condition Lucius?"

"You're not going to believe me."

"So, that's never stopped you from gossiping before." Snape hissed

"You wound me, Sev," he pouted, gaining a patented Snape glare "Ok. Ok. Last night, I stopped by to check on the progress with Draco, and on my way out I heard our lord having one of his dreams"

"Your big news is that he has sex dreams? We already know that." Snape interrupted

"If you had let me finish I could have told you that our lords been lying, he doesn't dream about fucking Potter. He's been dreaming of Potter fucking him."

Snape found himself fighting the need to laugh hysterically, while simultaneously trying to hold down his breakfast.

"It explains why he's started obsessing over him." he finally managed to choke out "it even explains why he had me brew up those potions for him to regain his former appearance."

"And to think we thought he was being vain when in reality...he's trying to look good for Potter."

"Why aren't you more upset over this, I doubt Potter will ever convert and now it's unlikely our lord will be able to AK him."

At this Lucius' face suddenly grew much more serious,

"I'm not upset, because this obsession with Potter has helped him regain some of his sanity. I didn't join up to randomly kill unimportant muggles and wizards, though it is fun; I signed up to recreate the wizarding world, and our lord seems to have been getting farther and farther from his original goals."

"It's not like you to show discontentment in our lord Lucius, but I know what you mean."

He could barley hold in his mirth over the next thought he had,

"Funny thing is that Potter might have actually agreed with his original plans."

* * *

Oblivious to his father's current company, Draco had just finished his repairs to the old cabinet, surprised it hadn't been too damaged. He hated how his father served the crazed maniac. Sure he hated muggles and mud-bloods, but that didn't mean he liked that they were being killed off at random. Even purebloods knew that new blood was needed to keep their world stable. Squibs and low levels married mud-bloods, their children married lesser purebloods and so new blood slowly trickled into pureblooded families. That's how it was supposed to work. He personally believed Voldemort had gone insane and would ruin the English wizarding world, but then again he daren't say so aloud. Instead, he simply sent an owl to his father, saying he'd finished with the cabinet.

* * *

Seeing that their lord was finely starting to pull himself together, Snape and Lucius approached him to report on their missions.

"My lord, Draco has almost finished repairing the old vanishing cabinet as you requested."

Receiving a nod, Severus approached and handed over the last bottle of restoring potion.

"This is the last dose my lord, but it's going to be a while before we know how much of your former appearance will return."

The potion had already greatly restored him to his former 20 year old appearance, but he still had a few scales running down his spine and distinctly serpentine eyes and tongue. Voldemort drank the potion and was about to leave the room when a large eagle owl swooped into the room and delivered a letter to Malfoy.

"My lord, I just received news from Draco. He has finished with the cabinet and claims that Dumbledore's been called away and won't be returning for a day or so."

"Feel like visiting Hogwarts?" Voldemort inquired

Swiftly walking over to the cabinets, Malfoy was the first to enter, followed by Snape and Voldemort.

* * *

Draco was relaxing in the room when the cabinet suddenly lurched halfway across the room and his father stepped out. Now, if this wasn't shocking enough, Snape and the dark lord quickly followed him. Not even having time to dwell on this occurrence, they all whipped around to see a door appear and a certain duo enter the room.

* * *

Harry and Hermione had been having a perfectly normal evening, when they arrived to check out the Room Of Requirements. Upon entering however, instead of a clean room with cushions and a raised dais, they saw a lounge filled with their most hated people (baring the Dursleys, Wormtail, and Dumbledore). Within an instant both of them had their wands aimed at Voldemort, just as he had his trained on them. This stalemate however didn't last long as Harry was suddenly the only one in the room left with a wand.

"Thanks" he whispered to the room, keeping his wand trained on Voldemort

**BOOM**

**CRASH **

They all turned around just in time to see a rather singed Neville get flung into the room, just as the cabinet fell over and broke into slivers of dry wood. Standing up to brush himself off, he caught sight of the room's inhabitants and quickly fainted. This display was followed by numerous glares from the Slytherins, rolled eyes from Harry, and a dejected sigh from Hermione. Ignoring him for now Harry walked over to the door, which was now severely warped and charred from the explosion, and proceeded to attempt opening it.

"Damn, it won't open."

He then attempted to ask the room to open the door, but it didn't budge. Losing his already short temper, he hit the blasted door with everything he had.

"Alohomora, Reparo, Confringo, Defodio, Reducto, Diffindo, Expulso"

Sighing when nothing seemed to work, he attempted a few of the darker spells he had learnt, but the door didn't budge. Summoning Hermione's wand, he handed it over while she tried her luck, but to no avail. Now pissed at being locked in a room with Voldemort and his group, Harry summoned his strength for a last attempt with the most powerful spell he knew.

"FiendFyre"

This time the door was engulfed in a tyrannical firestorm in the shape of a bird, but when he released it the door still didn't open.

Giving up he collapsed into an armchair, unaware of Voldemort and co.'s incredulous stares. Hermione simply sat on a couch next to him, and appeared deep in thought. A few moments latter Harry sighed and stood up to ennerveate Neville.

"Um..No offense Harry but why are you in the ROR with you-know-who, Snape, and the Malfoys?"

"Coincidence, followed by you locking us in." Harry growled, "What caused the explosion?"

"Um..." He blushed, "I tripped."

Glare

"And well….I still had the juice in my pocket."

Glare

"It's not my fault…Ron pushed me."

"It's lucky you're not dead." Harry finally sighed.

"Harry, why in Merlin's name would you have given that to Neville of all people." Mione gasped, "No offense Nev."

"He was the only one available." "No offense Nev."

"Don't worry, even I know I'm not to be trusted with anything valuable or explosive, but I do wonder what happened to Ron in the explosion."

"Who cares what happened to the weasel," Malfoy sneered, reminding them of their 'company', "and what the hell were you foolish enough to give Longbottom."

"Not that it's any of your business Malfoy, but I HAD a vial of erumpent fluid."

"How did you get a hold of enough to cause such an explosion" Malfoy Sr. questioned

"Like I said, it's none of your business."

Despite the clear tension, everyone eventually settled down (though Voldy had a bit of a 'problem' after seeing Harry cast such dark spells) and sat in the various couches and armchairs the room had provided.

"We're stuck in here aren't we?" Hermione sighed, finally breaking the tense silence

"Yep"

"But," said Neville, "I thought you knew at least two ways into every room of the castle?"

"Every room except the R.O.R.," he sighed, "there's only one way in and only one way out."

"But I thought you had control of the room?"

"So? There's still only one exit Nev." He said, growing a bit annoyed

"But still Harry, you can at least ask." Hermione butted in

"I already did."

"Oh." Hermione sighed

"So I guess we're stuck in here." Neville muttered

Half an hour of uncomfortable silence latter, Malfoy Sr. spoke up.

"Why Potter, does this room only respond to you?"

"It doesn't, it just likes him." Hermione answered

"Like the rest of the castle" Neville muttered, receiving a glare from Harry

"What now it's a secret?" Herm. laughed

After Voldemort and co. finished staring at Harry for another fifteen minutes, Draco broke the renewed silence.

"Can you at least ask this room for something to do, I'm bored?" he complained

"Only you would be bored at a time like this." Hermione nagged

"Shut it Granger."

"I hate agreeing with Malfoy, but I'm bored too." Neville admitted, before he was interrupted by his stomach, "and hungry."

"That, I can take care of." Potter stated as he called Dobby

"Wait Harry," Hermione cried "if you can call Dobby, can't he let us out?"

"The door only opens from the inside when it's being used, unless I'm the one opening it. Besides, it's not locked, it's busted."

"Oh"

"Well… can he transport us out" Nev. asked

"House elves can't apparate with people while in Hogwarts," Hermione lectured

Thankfully, Neville was saved from what was sure to be a long and boring lecture, as Dobby arrived.

"Oh, Harry Potter sir, Dobby is so glad you is calling him…what can Dobby be doing for you'ses"

"We're kind of locked in for the moment, so we were wondering if you could bring us some dinner."

"Of course. Dobby'll get food for Harry Potter sir, but Dobby must ask why you's is sitting with nasty wizards."

"Just an accident Dobby."

"Of course sir, but… should Dobby brings them foods too?"

"You better get us food Potter." Snape growled

"Yeah," Harry sighed, "bring food for all of us please, Dobby."

Dobby finally popped out, and Hermione released the laughter she'd been holding in since seeing Dobby's hero-worshipping hyper-activeness.

"Well, At least he only calls you sir now" She cackled

"Yeah. Yeah. Laugh all you want."

Neville coughed and muttered something that sounded an awful lot like "spew"

Dobby quickly reappeared with a feast

"It's a bit much don't you think Dobby?" Harry chuckled

"Yes sir. But alls the other elves wanted to help Harry Potter sir too."

"Thanks Dobby, you can go back to Winky now if you want."

At this point Hermione was finally calming down enough to grab some food, as did everyone else.

"Hey Harry, what about some entertainment?" Nev. asked with his mouth full

"I'll ask."

Sure enough, five rather large books fell on Neville's head

"Jerk." He screeched

"You wanted entertainment" Harry snickered

"No offense, but I didn't mean books Harry. Can't you ask for something else?"

"I already tried. The room apparently wants us to read these."

"I thought you controlled the room."

"It listens to me, but it still has a mind of its own Nev."

"Oh." Neville said as he picked one up and read the title, quickly bursting into laughter

"What's the book?" Harry groaned, knowing it couldn't be good

"Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone"

"Who the heck would write a book about me and expect people to read it."

"Who knows Potty, but its better then staring at the walls all day." Draco sneered

"If you're so keen on it, why don't you read the first chapter Malfoy?"


	2. The BWL and Sleeping arrangements

Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter

A/N: Please Review or PM me your thoughts on the current format. I think it's easier to read, since I've read 'the characters read' stories before and I never pay much attention to the book portions of the story. If anyone is having trouble with this method, I'll use the old method again or try something new.

A/N 2: If my story is removed again I will likely post it to readingthehpbooks dot proboards dot com. Thanks to **19811945** for the suggestion.

* * *

Picking up the book and giving it a once over, Draco eventually gave into his curiosity and began to read.

**Chapter one: The boy who lived**

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much…**

As Draco continued to read Harry sighed, realizing that his life with the Dursleys was going to be revealed to the last people he'd have trusted with the information. On top of this, Hermione was too high-strung to ignore the Pureblood's ignorance of muggle items and terms; this was going to be a very long day.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck…**

He did however have to admit that the author's descriptions were remarkably accurate.

"Hey, Harry. The author sure seems to have summed them up huh?" Herm. Commented, voicing his thoughts

"Who are these people, Potter?" Snape questioned, wondering why the woman's description seemed familiar

"Be patient. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

**The Dursley's had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion, there was no finer boy anywhere.**

At this, Harry and Hermione couldn't help the faint chuckles and snorts that escaped them.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret…**

"oh…a secret" Neville chuckled

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister…**

"ahh.. that's not a secret. We already knew that" he pouted

"So they're your relatives." Snape surmised aloud, remembering Lily's sister

…**her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. **

"Hear that Harry? Your _Undursleyish_," Hermione chuckled

… **the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"I wouldn't want my children interacting with Harry either." Neville joked

As Harry listened to the author's description of how Dudley had acted as a child he couldn't help but cringe, remembering his earliest memories of the Dursleys.

"I never knew someone could be a bastard from birth." Hermione huffed, earning her surprised looks from the rooms occupants

"I never thought I'd hear _her_, of all people, swear." Nev. whispered to Harry, "Even if they do deserve it."

"And there's no way that whale has _ever_ been a 'little tyke." Harry chuckled dryly

This however, only gained him an odd glance from the Slytherins, before Draco continued.

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map.**

"Gee! I wonder who that can be?" Herm laughed, pretending to be deep in thought

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen -then he jerked his head around to look again. **

"Crashing into a wall and dying a horrible death, the end." Neville couldn't help but add.

"I wish." Harry chuckled

By now, the Slytherins were very confused. First, they were locked in a room with Potter and his friends, then they find out that they know some rather dark spells, and now apparently they weren't all 'sunshine and daisies' anymore either.

**It must have been a trick of the light. **

"Idiot. What the hell kind of lighting can make you see a map?" Hermione sniffed

…**cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"Stupid muggle." Malfoy spat, interrupting himself

…**on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. **

"Wow! Such mental capacities." Lucius chuckled

…**there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about… these people were obviously collecting for something ... yes, that would be it.**

It was amazing to read just what his relatives were thinking as they tried to ignore the signs of magic, despite knowing that it existed. Besides this, it was interesting to see how muggles in general convinced themselves that they weren't seeing anything strange.

"I never knew your relatives were so delusional Potter."

"It's a good thing he and the others _were_ so delusional Malfoy. Seriously, what were they thinking, 'Voldemort's dead, now let's ignore the secrecy act and destroy the wizarding world', was everyone high at this point?"

"Don't be so glum. I mean seriously, Voldemort had vanished and they were just having fun. Course they _were_ foolish, but at least they had a reason to be." Neville volunteered, "After everything she was dealing with, even my gram threw a huge party that night. You should see the pictures she has of it in her album."

"You're right though Harry. It _is_ lucky that most muggles just don't question anything." Hermione added, "Although, it's also kind of sad really."

"If you're finished Granger, I'd like to continue reading." Draco sneered

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning.**

"Oh no! We can't let **that** happen, now can we?" Lucius smirked, "I'm starting to see why you hate him Potter."

**He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. **

"Huh. I always wondered what exactly he did there." Harry mused

**He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite.**

"Yeah. Wouldn't want him wasting away now would we?" Nev. chuckled

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard -"**

**"- yes, their son, Harry -"**

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

"Surprising." Harry laughed

**He […] had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking...**

"Don't hurt yourself, now." Draco snickered

**No, he was being stupid. **

"What else is new?" Harry chuckled

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon…**

"Enough with the drills already" Neville sighed

…**when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"They're lucky he didn't crush them." Neville gasped

**"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

"I never would have guessed he knew that word" Harry frowned

"Sounds like Flitwick." Snape muttered, as the small man was described

**As he pulled into the driveway at number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"10 galleons says it's McGonagall!" Draco shouted

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"No question about it; that is defiantly Minerva." Snape smirked

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word (Shan't).**

"Wow, big achievement." Draco snorted

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. **

"See? I told you my aunt couldn't cook for herself" Harry snickered, having told his friends about Petunia's horrible cooking skills.

**He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

"I'm sure my mum did too." Harry growled

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought... maybe ... it was something to do with ... you know ... her lot."**

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. **

"How Exactly…?" Hermione couldn't help question

**Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'.**

**He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard isn't it?"**

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Anything's better then Dudley." Voldemort hissed, drawing surprised glances from the teenagers, who couldn't believe he'd just defended Harry, and knowing smirks from the older two.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it was waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things?**

"Nope" Nev. chuckled

**Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did ... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"Total Bummer Dude." Nev. continued, earning himself a few odd looks

**The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind... **

"I swear Harry, if your uncle doesn't stop talking about us like we're a completely different species…" Hermione growled, leaving the threat hanging

"Calm down Herm. it's pointless to get mad about what that idiot says. Trust me." Harry sighed, patting his friend on the back

**He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn't affect them ...**

**How very wrong he was.**

"Dun..Du.. Don" Neville screamed, startling everyone

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. **

"Does she ever?" Harry shivered, thinking off the times they'd had to deal with a newly awoken McGonagall.

**In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground.**

"Portkey." Herm. chirped

"Thank you miss. Obvious." Snape sneered

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

At this point all hell broke out as the room filled with hissed jeers and "Boos" from the occupants. That is everyone but Draco, who was too busy reading.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. **

"Oh. I'm sure he knew. He just didn't give a damn." Harry snarled, receiving another odd look from the Slytherins

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. **

"who want's to bet it's some kind of candy?" Neville grinned

**He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket.**

**It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Coooool" Neville beamed

"Looks like you were wrong Nev."

**He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.**

"How exactly? A cats eyes don't produce light, you just see them reflect ambient light. If all the lights were out, there wouldn't have been any light around for them to reflect." Hermione grumbled, annoyed at the authors mistake

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"I KNEW IT!" Draco and Snape shouted (although Snape wasn't nearly as loud)

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff too if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"How can you sniff angrily?" Voldemort frowned,

At this Hermione happily jumped up and did her best McGonagall impression, making even Snape smirk at the likeness.

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls ... shooting stars ... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. **

"Not completely stupid? How awful! I can NOT believe she'd say that" Hermione shrieked

"Calm down Mione. I'm sure she didn't mean it that way. She was probably just referring to the Dursleys." Harry said, trying to placate his friend

**Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"Good ol' Diggle." Harry chuckled, thinking of the colorful man who always bowed to him

**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"Hey Harry, she sounds a lot like you did." Neville smirked

"And you sound a lot like Dumbledore." Harry said, smiling evilly

Before Neville could blink, he found himself wearing flashing blue robes, and sporting a nice new beard with glasses

"Nice one Harry." Hermione choked out between laughs

"Impressive Potter." Lucius smirked

Draco however, quickly calmed back down to continue reading.

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes swapping rumours."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on: "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

"I beg to differ" Tom smirked

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"**

**"A what?"**

**"A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"Wow. Even then he was obsessed with muggle candy." Harry observed

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons.**

**"As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like your self can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name:**

At this point Draco stuttered and Harry had to supply the word,

"Voldemort".

Surprisingly enough Lucius, Snape, and Draco were the only ones to flinch.

Voldemort was yet again glad he had worn a loose robe that day, as he shuddered from the way Harry said his name.

Hermione simply reached over and continued where Draco left off.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was un-sticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice.**

"Ewww. Aren't those things individually wrapped? What'd he do, lick them and stick 'em in his pocket?" Hermione shuddered, wrinkling her nose

**"It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half-exasperated, half-admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the one You-Know - oh, all right, Voldemort -was frightened of"**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Ha, even he admits it." Voldemort shouted jumping up, before noticing the looks he was getting from the Gryffindors and sitting quickly

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

This brought a collective shudder through the room causing Hermione to drop the book, which Draco resumed reading.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, **

"Aww. And here I thought she was there because she cared about me." Harry huffed, pretending to pout

**for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.**

"Ewwww." Draco gagged, mind wondering into the gutter

**It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. **

"Good to know she hasn't changed much" Hermione sniffed, remembering her lack of trust in them when they'd told her about the philosopher's stone

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter** **Are - are - that they're - dead.**

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James ... I can't believe it ... I didn't want to believe it ... Oh, Albus ..."**

"...I didn't think she cared much for them." Harry frowned

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know ... I know ..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.**

"And that turned out so well!" Neville laughed, trying to cheer up his friend who seemed a little depressed hearing about his parents.

**"But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"Such a clever old actor isn't he?" Harry snared, knowing that Dumbledore hadn't been upset; it was all for 'the greater good' after all.

**"It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done ... all the people he's killed ... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding ...of all the things to stop him ... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"Hey, we already know about Harry, but do you remember anything from that night." Herm. asked

"No, now stop talking."

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took out a watch from his pocket and examined it. **

"Oh. Stop acting like you care, you great goat." Hermione hissed, annoyed at having to read about the headmasters manipulations

**"Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle.** **They're the only family he has left now."**

"They have never been my family" Harry muttered

**You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't."**

**I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"Good to know someone realized that." Hermione growled

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"A letter?" Harry repeated incredulously

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him!**

**He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future **

"Thankfully not." Snape sneered

**- there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"**

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course.**

"Yeah. Cause everyone knows ol' Bubble whore can do no wrong." Harry spat

**But how is the boy getting here Dumbledore?"**

**She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"Eww. Please tell me he didn't? otherwise I might just have to kill myself" Harry grimaced, disgusted

No one noticed Draco's shudder as his thoughts again went into the gutter

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

"**You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"Much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with him on that. I wouldn't trust him with any kind of secret though." Harry smiled

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

"What was what?" Nev. asked in bewilderment, as the spells on him wore off

"Not me, the book."

"Oh."

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Sirius's bike" Hermione giggled quietly, remembering how obsessed he was with it once Hagrid had returned it to him at Headquarters

"Wrong Hermione." Harry laughed, whispering in her ear "It's my bike now"

"What the hell was he thinking leaving it to you?" she groaned, "you get into enough trouble already.'

"Wow. Nice to know how much confidence you have in me"

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we were flyin' over Bristol."**

"Why would he muggles have been 'swarming around'? Isn't Godric's Hollow a wizarding town?" Hermione frowned, frightened that Hagrid might have been involved in Dumbledore's manipulations.

"Calm down Granger. There are some things you won't find in any book; one of them is that the protections hiding Godric's Hollow from the muggles went down briefly after my lord's disappearance. The magical backlash was too much for them to handle and the muggles in the area freaked out when the spells hiding it fell." Lucius snared

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

**"Is that where - ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground. **

SHUDDER

**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I - could I say goodbye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.**

**He bent his great shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss.**

**Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall. "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

"Yes, yes it's all very sad." Snape sneered, rolling his eyes

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, **

At this Snape just glared

**but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets and then came back to the other two. **

"Wow. Just Wow." Harry sighed, "The Dursleys always said they found me on the doorstep, but even before I knew about magic I never believed someone would actually leave a baby outside over night. Especially not in November."

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

"Hey Harry, What happened to that bike anyway?" Neville asked, not having heard Harry's earlier conversation with Hermione

"It's in my vault with his other stuff."

"Wait, why do you have Black's bike, I thought Black wanted to kill you?" Draco questioned

"Nope, he was my godfather. Now keep reading."

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street […] He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. **

"He doesn't need it. He already has far too much 'pure dumb luck'." Snape grumbled

**Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley ...He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

"Finally! I was afraid I'd fall asleep half-way through the chapter." Hermione yawned

Looking around and seeing that they all looked half-asleep by that point, Harry asked The Room for some bedding arrangements, not expecting The Rooms response.

Four beds suddenly appeared, each with a small dresser next to it: four large, green beds. One appeared to be little larger than the other two, while one was much smaller. In the center of each lay a small name card. Hermione was the first to that side of the room where she read off the arrangements.

"Snape and Malfoy Sr. are supposed to take the larger one, Harry and Voldemort get one, Draco and I get one, and Neville gets the small one to himself"

"Like hell I'm bunking with you Granger, you can stay with Longbottom." Draco insisted, as he sat on the bed intended for Neville.

"Ahhhh!"

"What happened Malfoy?" Harry asked

"The damn bed stung me. Can't you make this damn room see reason?"

"I already tried, you think I want to sleep with Tom?" he said, missing the hurt that flitted across Voldemort's face.

"Who's Tom?"

"Voldemort, you idiot. The room seems to have lost its marbles, so it's best to just live with the arrangements and go to sleep."

"Harry's right, the beds are more than large enough. Let's just go to bed." Hermione said, crawling onto the mattress

After some more muttering and cursing from various occupants every one settled down for the night. Soon, Voldemort found himself to be the only one awake as he stared at Harry. His last conscious thought that night was the hope that he wouldn't have one of _those_ dreams about Harry while laying so close to him.


	3. Vanishing Glass and Sexual Tension

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

A/N: Since I haven't recieved any reviews, etc claiming that teh format s difficult to read or anything, I'll continue to use the current format unless told otherwise. Please forgive my poor attempts at writing the sexual scenes and feel free to skip them, once the chapters get more Lemon-esk I'll give a warning before the scene.

* * *

"Oh, god…Harry…faster…please…god…Potter…Harder…Yes…God….Harder"

Harry Potter couldn't believe what he was seeing (and more importantly hearing). He'd woken up about 2 minutes ago to some rather _interesting_ sounds. To say he'd been shocked would be the understatement of the century. Opening his eyes he'd instantly found himself staring at Voldemort, who was arching upwards moaning very loudly. When he'd first heard his name, he nearly had a heart attack, followed by the need to laugh hysterically. There was Voldemort, a wizard so feared that most people couldn't even speak his name, arching into the air, while having an obviously enjoyable dream about Harry fucking him senseless. Now, as a teenage boy, he'd be lying if he said the sight wasn't at least a little stimulating, but hearing the others waking up he decided to put an end to it.

Leaning over, he poked him in the side attempting to wake him up without alerting the others. Not getting much of a response, he called his name:

"Voldemort…Voldemort….TOM!" he hissed, finally getting a response, though not what he expected.

* * *

Voldemort suddenly lurched forward, eyes shooting open. Only to find one stunned Harry Potter staring at him, and a rather _moist_ set of sheets.

Suddenly, more embarrassed then he'd been since he was a school-boy, he simply stared right back.

* * *

Finally snapping out of his daze, Harry simple smirked at him before asking the Room for a change of bedding. Noticing that the others were waking, he got up and checked to see if the door was still busted –which it was- and summoned Dobby to get them some breakfast.

Seeing Voldemort still staring at him, he just rolled his eyes and went to wake up Neville and Hermione. Indicating that Tom (since that's the name he'd finally responded to) should do the same for Snape and the Malfoys.

Once Dobby arrived with the food, they all sat down to eat wondering why last night's tension seemed to have vanished. Now, the three teenagers (excluding Harry) had no clue what had changed, while Snape and Lucius had already guessed that their lord had had another dream the night before. Neither group was complaining however; glad that -if they had to be locked in the room together- they could at least be comfortable.

With Snape and Tom sitting alone in armchairs, the Malfoy's sitting together on a couch, and the three Gryffindors together on another larger couch, they settled down to read again.

"Who's reading this chapter?" Hermione asked as she picked up the book

"It's too early Herm. Why don't you start?" Nev. asked while attempting to hold back a yawn.

"Sure."

**Chapter Two: The Vanishing Glass**

"I remember this day; it was pretty much the best day of my life before Hogwarts." Harry chuckled

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. **

Harry had never stopped to think about it before but, as they read through the rest of the paragraph, he realized just how little things changed, not just at the Dursleys, but the whole block. In twenty years he could probably go back there and nothing would have changed; people would be older, some others would have kids, some would have moved away, but the kids would act exactly the same as the ones he'd gone to school with, the people who moved into the vacant houses would be just like the ones who moved out. He'd never realized just how out-of-place he was on that street. It was a depressing thought.

**Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bobble hats - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"What's a computer game?" Draco finally asked

"It's a game muggle kids play using a controller." Herm. lectured

The purebloods gave out a collective, "oh", still not understanding, but unwilling to sit through a lecture.

"What I don't understand" Lucius frowned "is why they don't have any photographs of Potter."

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." Hermione growled, not looking forward to hearing the details of how she knew the Dursleys had treated Harry

**Harry woke with a start.[…]He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. […] There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Yeah, well now I know why." Harry laughed

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"Does she always speak to you like that Potter?" Tom hissed, not receiving an answer as Hermione continued reading

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"They made you cook? I knew they were awful but I didn't think they'd make you cook! You were a puny little eleven year old, I'm surprised you could reach the cooktop." Hermione shouted, not seeming to care that no one was listening

"Can you just keep reading Mione? You already know that my life at the Dursley's sucked, but I'm never going back there so it doesn't matter anymore."

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"WHAT?" Voldemort screeched, "Did she just say you lived in a cupboard?"

"Yeah. So. Who cares, it was a long time ago?" Harry shrugged

"What kind of person locks a child in a cupboard?" Lucius asked, appalled. Infertility and other issues had always plagued the wizarding world, making it unheard of for someone to abuse a wizarding child –there was a reason there weren't any wizarding orphanages after all.

"Harry's no good relatives did, that's who. I bet they found him outside and threw him in there the first day." Neville growled, "It wasn't until latter that they finally let him out."

"Just go on with the story." Harry grumbled

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

Seeing the confusion on the face of the Slytherins, Harry quickly explained before Hermione could start reciting the dictionary definitions. "They're just really expensive muggle items. The bike is kind of like the muggle version of a broom, everyone has one, only they don't float and only go as fast as a kid's training broom.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punch-bag was Harry…**

At these words the whole room stopped to glare at the book, with Voldemort hissing obscenities in parseltongue. Only Harry's not-so-subtle shove got Hermione reading again.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes.**

"What a flattering description." Harry commented sarcastically

**The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his aunt was how he had got it.**

"Wait. You actually liked your scar?" Hermione asked

"Yep. Still do when people aren't staring at it, and it's not causing me trouble"

**"In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"A car crash, they told you they died in a car crash?" Lucius scoffed

"Yeah. They never told me anything about them aside from that though."

**she had said. "and don't ask questions."**

"Don't ask questions! You're one of the most curious people I know, that's just cruel." Hermione gasped; she knew about the big things like the cupboard already, but she never knew how many other, smaller, ways the Dursleys had of torturing her best friend.

**Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"I'd really like to know what the other rules were." Neville muttered, "That way I'll know what to get even with them for."

**Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not muck neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

At this the room burst into laughter, all the tension needing a way to release itself

"Good one Harry" Nev. laughed, imagining Harry's cousin

It took a while before Hermione was able to pull herself back together

**Dudley, meanwhile was counting his presents. **

"Who actually counts their presents?" Lucius sneered, "If Draco ever did something like that…"

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"You know…I'm actually very surprised he remembers how many he had the year before." Harry mused, not having noticed that before

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"Is that why you eat so quickly? I've always wondered." Herm mused before continuing

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"**

"Spoilt git." Draco huffed

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.**

"It probably was." Harry chuckled

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."**

"Merlin. The brat can't even count." Lucius exclaimed, looking disgusted

"No. Surprisingly enough he can, he did count all thirty six of his present after all. He just can't add or work with numbers well.

**"Thirty nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

As they read about all the different presents and gifts Dudley received that year, even the purebloods were able to understand how expensive and excessive the gifts were. It was traditional to get a gold watch for your seventeenth birthday, yet here was a snot-nosed brat of an eleven year old getting one.

**Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.**

"Arabella Fig? The squib? What's she doing there?" Lucius asked

Snape opened his mouth to answer, but the vow he swore to the Order kept him from doing so.

"Apparently, the order stuck her there to keep an eye on me." Harry scoffed

"How can you speak about the Order, Ha- Potter?" Snape snapped, hoping no one had caught his slip-up.

"That's for me to know, and you _not_ to find out."

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, My Paws and Tufty again.**

"We don't blame ya dude." Neville commented

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

**"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates the boy."**

Neville couldn't help laughing at this, "Considering what you did to her, I'm assuming the feeling is mutual, huh?

"You bet" Harry grinned, remembering how she'd bobbed along on the ceiling

"And what exactly did you do to your aunt" Tom questioned, raising an eyebrow

"Not telling Tom. You'll just have to wait until the third book."

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer.)**

"Very Slytherin Potter." Voldemort smirked

At this the Gryffindors shared a look, each knowing just how true that was.

"What's with the look Potty?" Draco drawled

"Nothing. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

**Dudley began to cry loudly.**

**In fact he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Bastard." Neville grumbled

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

All the kids snorted at the horrendous nickname

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"Please tell me you ruined his 'special day', I don't think I could stand it if I had to read about how great your cousin's day was." Draco drawled

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

Having to listen as his friends read about his uncles threats to him was awkward, and spending the next half-hour repeating to them that 'no his uncle never beat him' and 'no he wasn't locked up that long', but eventually he got them to calm down enough to continue reading. It didn't escape his notice however that Tom and the Slytherins had been visibly restraining themselves from questioning him as well.

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Yes you did. You just didn't do it on purpose. That's why young wizards have to be watched at all times." Lucius grimaced morosely, obviously thinking of similar events occurring with Draco

After the interrogation he had just sat through about his families 'abuse', the next few paragraphs were a needed relief. I'd been so long since he'd though back on all the 'freakish' things he'd done as a kid, and now that he no longer had the shadow of the Dursleys hanging over his head, he was free to enjoy the memories.

"I thought it was impossible to apparate without extreme concentration?" Hermione asked once they'd read about Harry's accident with the schools roof

"Yeah. Or an ungodly amount of power." Voldemort responded, looking over at Harry

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. **

"Harry! You should know better than to even think that. Murphy's law really seems to hate you." Hermione groaned, knowing something was going to go wrong now.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.**

**This morning, it was motorbikes. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"You really should have known better." Hermione sighed, repeating herself

"Hey! Give me a break Mione, I didn't get out of the house much." Harry blushed, "I was a little overexcited."

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even in a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"As if that could keep you of all people out of trouble." Snape chuckled, ignoring the startled looks it caused

**The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly.**

**It wasn't bad either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

The room once again broke into laughter at this, with Harry wondering what they'd think at the end of the chapter. He'd only ever mentioned the snake incident to Ron and Hermione briefly immediately after discovering he was a parselmouth.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

"And here I thought you lacked survival instincts." Draco grinned

**After lunch they went to the reptile house.**

At this Voldemort turned to look at him, obviously figuring out what was about to happen.

It wasn't long after that that Hermione reached the part Harry had been nervous about.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's.**

**It winked.**

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"I can't believe I forgot you were a parseltongue!" Draco frowned

**The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**

"I'd love to say that was the weirdest conversation I've ever heard, but I think you'll find a way to top it." Neville chuckled

"I don't understand" Hermione started, "was the snake actually talking to you? Or was it just communicating with gestures?"

"When was the last time you were at the zoo Mione?" Harry chuckled, "They make the snake tank out of bullet proof glass. The snake was probably talking, I just couldn't hear it; all I noticed were the gestures, so that's all that was written in the book."

**Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. "Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

The room once again erupted in laughter. This time however, it took far longer for everyone to settle down.

"You released a giant boa, in a muggle zoo?" Lucius gaped in awe

"I can't believe you never told us about this mate." Nev. gasped, wiping stray tears from his eyes

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, " Brazil, here I come ... Thanksss, amigo."**

"See Mione? I heard the snake just fine once the glass was gone."

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"If only it had." Harry sighed, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately

**But, worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Tattletale" Neville huffed childishly, sticking his tongue out at the book.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking in to the kitchen for some food. He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died.**

"So that's why you're so good at sneaking around the castle." Snape grumbled quietly

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where the green light came from.**

"I can't believe you remember that." Voldemort mumbled, nobody noticing the guilty look on his face.

**He couldn't remember his parents at all.**

Knowing that this was hard on her best friend, Mione quickly read through the next few chapters. Having Harry get upset while sitting in a room with the man who killed him could only end badly.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

"I still don't get how they found me, but you couldn't." Harry pondered, breaking through the tension that had settled on the room

"Don't ask me; Ask the old goat." Voldemort shrugged, secretly relieved

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's the last of this chapter." Hermione yawned, getting up to stretch, and grabbing some leftover breakfast. "Who's reading the next chapter?"

"I will." Neville volunteered, getting up to grab the book.


	4. Letters from nowhere and flaming books

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

* * *

After grabbing the book, Neville quickly began to read

**THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE**

"Don't let Minerva hear that," Snape chuckled, "she's constantly complaining about how many letters she has to sign."

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new cine-camera, crashed his remote-control aeroplane and, first time on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"What a horrid child." Lucius drawled in disgust

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

**The rest of them were quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry-hunting.**

"I'm gonna kill your relatives Potter." Voldemort hissed

"Get in line." Harry smirked; knowing that Hermione and Neville had already claimed that right

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had a place at Uncle Vernon's old school, Smeltings, Piers Polkiss was going there, too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local comprehensive. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

**"No thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick."**

At this the teenagers erupted with laughter while Voldemort, Snape, and Lucius simply chuckled

"Nice one Potter"

"Brilliant"

**Then he ran for it before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"I needn't have bothered; it took him forever to figure it out."

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. […] She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Ugg…tell me you didn't eat it Harry," a rather green Neville interrupted

"Of course I did. It was the only chocolate I'd had for years. You would have too." Harry answered

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living-room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters. **

"Kind of makes you glad for the Hogwarts' uniform huh?" Harry chuckled

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"Totally. Cause hitting smaller kids installs such stellar morals." Neville joked

"This is really getting irritating" Harry thought, rolling his eyes as everyone began to glare at the book as they heard about Aunt Petunia's attempt at dying Dudley's old clothes to make him his 'new' uniform. By the time they got to the argument over who should get the post Harry was honestly surprised the book hadn't burst into flames from Voldemort's glare alone.

**"Get the post, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"Are you telling me that he actually made that tub of lard do something?" Draco gaped, shocked

**"Make Harry get it."**

"Ohh. And look! He actually knows your name. It's a day of Miracles!" Neville laughed, dragging out the 'r' in miracles and causing the room to break into chuckles

**"Get the post, Harry."**

**"Make Dudley get it."**

**"Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley."**

At these words any remaining gaiety dried up faster than a puddle in hell as everyone again turned to glare at the book as though it had personally insulted them, causing Harry to sigh in impatience

**Harry dodged the Smeltings stick and went to get the post. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and - a letter for Harry. Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band.**

"Why? It's just a letter?" Draco questioned

"Yeah. But it's probably the first one he's ever gotten." Herm. explained

**No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives - he didn't belong to the library so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. **

"See Malfoy?"

**Yet, here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**the Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

"Minerva and I have been protesting the use of self-addressing quills since he first started using them, but he always argues that there's no reason to use house elves like previous headmasters did." Snape sighed, shaking his head

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. **

Hermione sighed, "Bad move Harry."

The others silently agreed this wouldn't end well

**He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk ..."**

"Whelk?" Neville questioned, turning to look at Harry

"They're a type of sea snail Nev. The Dursleys had me cook them a few times when Marge visited."

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"tattle-tail." Draco scoffed

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

"Are we about to see a taste of that famous temper of yours Harry?" Hermione giggled, finally beginning to realize that there was really no point getting upset over something that happened years ago.

Harry, of course, did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at him.

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it.**

**His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.**

"Who comes up with these colors?" Harry wondered, trying to remember if he'd really thought that

"I think you do." Hermione replied smirking, "You do have a knack for odd descriptions."

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it,** **but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line.**

**For a moment it looked as though she might faint.**

**She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"Choke you ugly horse, Choke." Neville spat bitterly

**" Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"**

"The images, the images…They burn." Draco screamed, hitting himself over the head with the second book

"Ewww, keep your images to yourself Draco." Snape shuddered, losing his composure along with everyone else in the room

**Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smeltings stick.**

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

". Mt. Harry is primed to erupt any moment now." Neville cackled, rubbing his hands together in anticipation

**"Get out both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"And there it is folks." Neville laughed, staring at the book and pretending to ooh and aww

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them.**

**Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won,**

"Big surprise there." Snape muttered

**So Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between the door and the floor.**

Neville stopped reading as Hermione scoffed loudly.

"You did that on purpose didn't you? You told me years ago that it's easier to see and hear what's going on from the floor than from the key hole."

"Course I did it on purpose. Besides, whenever some idiot eavesdrops from the keyhole and someone opens the door they end up with a really obvious black eye. I'd end up with a much easier to hid bruise so it's not so obvious that I was listening in. Honestly, don't you ever listen to me?" He sighed, acting offended and trying to imitate Hermione's own tone from when she scolded him

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Yeah, cause we've got nothing better to do then spy on _you_ of all people." Lucius glowered

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"….How exactly?" Draco asked, voicing everyone's thoughts

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door.** […] **"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"**Er – yes, Harry – about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking...you're really getting a bit big for it … we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom."**

"WHAT. The fat pig has two rooms." Voldemort hollered, scaring Neville into dropping the book

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard into his room. […] Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old cine-camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over next door's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air-rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.**

**Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as if they hadn't been touched before.**

"Sacrilege," Herm. choked, "the monster."

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smeltings stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof and he still didn't have his room back.**

"What. The poor turtle." Neville gasped, staring at the book in his hands

"Tortoise actually." Hermione corrected instantly, "You see, the real difference is.."

"Shut it Granger. Does it look like any of us care?" Draco interrupted, annoyed

**When the post arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.** […] **"There's another one! Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

"Oh my god Harry! What is that? Your go to plan for large obstacles? And if that doesn't work what do you do? Stick your wand up their nose!" Hermione sputtered from where she'd collapsed on the floor

Seeing everyone's confusion, Hermione pulled herself together enough to explain that this was how Harry had taken on the troll in first year and Millicent during the dueling club in second.

**Harry walked round and round his room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

{Insert collective groan}

"Hey! I happen to think it was a brilliant plan." Harry stated, blushing

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first.**

**His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall towards the front door -**

**"AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Harry leapt into the air - he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!**

"It's alive. It's alive." Hermione shrieked, laughing "Run. Run for your lives."

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big squashy something had been his uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do.**

"Wow Potter," Draco sneered, "such a brilliant plan you had that even that buffoon of a muggle could think of it."

"Leave off him Malfoy. Harry's better at improvising under pressure than he is at planning. That's what I'm for." Hermione huffed

**He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen, and by the time he got back, the post had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**"I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

"Bastard."

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the letter-box.**

"**See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver, they'll just give up."**

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," **

"Thankfully." Malfoy muttered

**said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruit cake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"How exactly do you pound a nail using fruit cake?" Snape sneered

"If it's Petunia's? Very Easily." Harry laughed thinking of his aunts baking

**On Friday, no fewer than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the letter-box they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs toilet.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again.**

**After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"What kind of song is that?" Draco asked

Before anyone could answer, the room suddenly filled with a hummed tune, which Harry instantly recognized

A bit confused by the room's behavior, Harry just shrugged and motioned for Neville to continue.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living-room window. **

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sunday's," he reminded them happily as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,"no damn letters today -"**

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. **

At this point they had to pause to explain what bullets, food processors, etc were to the pure-bloods.

**The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one –**

"Why exactly? I mean honestly Harry, couldn't you have grabbed one from the floor?"

"I didn't think to. Guess there's probably a reason I'm seeker instead of chaser huh?"

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding towards the motorway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, video and computer in his sports bag.**

"Finally, someone hit the boy." Lucius smirked

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. […] They didn't stop to eat or drink all day.**

**By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life.**

"Ah. Poor baby." Neville cooed, sounding disturbingly like Bellatrix

"You know…" Harry frowned as they read about his uncles attempts to outrun the letters, "I'd never noticed just how insane that whole situation was."

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

**"It's Monday," he told his mother.**

"Wow. The great lug knows the days of the week." Snape sneered

**Monday.**

"Yes. I think we've established that Potter." Snape muttered

**This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday […] then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun -last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat-hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

At this news the book literally began to smoke, making Neville rush to read as quickly as possible

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Not Good." Neville gulped

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out to sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. **

"You've got to be kidding me." Herm. shrieked

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces.**

**After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls and the fire-place was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could find and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

At this point Harry actually had to grab the book and smother the fire their glares ignited, beginning to suspect that the ROR's magic was granting their desire to damage the book

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger.** […] **The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside.**

**He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although it might be warmer if it did. **

Harry quickly told Neville to continue before the book could ignite again

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that?**

**And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise?**

**Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

"UGG. Harrrrryyy. Stop being such a downer dude." Neville sighed, shaking his head as he read the last few paragraphs

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds ... twenty seconds ... ten - nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him -**

**three - two - one -**

Neville recited the numbers, growing quieter and quieter until...

**BOOM.**

Neville all but screamed the last part, causing even the big, bad dark lord to jump into the air

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

Quickly finishing, and ignoring the glares from everyone (though hopping he too wouldn't catch flame) he threw the book over to Harry who was about to continue reading when Hermione stopped him.

"Let's take a break for a moment, Harry." She paused, blushing brightly as she continued "umm… do you think you can have The Room provide a privy?"

Ignoring her embarrassment, Harry simply smiled when a small door suddenly appeared in the corner

"Thanks" she shouted, dashing towards it.

With this they all separated out, some grabbing food, others heading for the same door in the corner, and some just lounging around.

* * *

Voldemort was reclining in a small armchair in the corner of the room. He still didn't know what to do about Harry.

'He didn't look disgusted at what I did' he argued with himself

'No, but he didn't look pleased either. And what was with that smirk?'

'You should say something'

'No! You can't!'

'But if I don't….'

And on it went. Poor Tommy

* * *

Neville, Harry, and Hermione (she'd returned a few moments ago) were discussing what to do when the Bubble Whore showed up. And no doubt he would eventually.

"He'll find us sooner or later. A professor and four students can't go missing long before someone notices." Harry pointed out

"Do you think he'll be able to get us out?" Hermione questioned

"I don't think so. And I don't want him knowing about Voldemort. So here's what we'll do…"

* * *

Lucius, seeing the disgusted look on his friends face turned towards him.

"Sickle for your thoughts?"

"Five years Lucius, five years I spent tormenting Potter. All because I thought he was worshipped over the summer. At least now I know why I could never deflate that big head of his." he chuckled grimly

"But…surly you noticed something" Lucius gaped, he'd never known Snape to _not_ notice. After all, half the Slytherins had shitty home lives –though always from neglect or impossibly high standards rather than physical abuse-, and he always knew which ones to lie off of.

"Not a thing, Lucius. Not even once."

* * *

Finally, with every one fed, watered, rested, etc. they all gathered back near the fireplace and Harry started reading.**  
**

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**


	5. Keeper of the keys and Awkward moments

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

A/N: I gave this warning in my origional, but I forgot to repost it on the first chapter: This story will have a number of cliches because I enjoy working with them in unique and interesting ways. If you don't like, don't read

A/N: When I have Harry or Hermione explaining muggle things it's mostly for the Malfoy's benefit, but I assume that Tom hasn't had any contact with the muggle world since he left school and that Snape dosn't want to draw attenting to his childhood.

A/N: When I use [...] it's to show a portion of text that the characters are reading, but none of he characters commented on.

* * *

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS **

**BOOM**

Harry yelled, receiving the same response as Neville

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.  
"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"What's a cannon?" Draco frowned, furrowing his brows

"Ugg. Stop interrupting every few minutes to ask about muggle things, just make a list and we'll explain later." Hermione growled, sick of the interruptions

"Jeez Herm. You're the smart one here, what good would it do to explain things later? You need to know what things are in order to understand what's going on in the story sometimes."

"I know that, but it doesn't make a difference if they know what a cannon is or not. Can we at least stop interrupting the book over stupid descriptor things and only explain the important terms? We can explain the rest latter. Does that work for you Mr. 'I-don't-need-to-hear-the-story-because-I-already-know-it'?"

"Yes." Harry smirked before turning to Draco, "Now, to answer your question, it's like a giant wand that only fires bombardia." Harry explained

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands.**

**Now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

"What good does he think that'll do him?" Draco frowned

"He's stupid. Just ignore him." Neville chuckled

**There was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH!**

Harry screamed, smirking when he gets the same response as before

"Cut that _out_ Potter." Snape snapped

"Nope." Harry smiled, returning to the book

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.**

"Half-giant actually." Hermione piped in

**His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair. The giant **

"Half-giant"

**squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. **

**"Couldn't make a cup o' tea could yeh? It's not been an easy journey ..."**

"…"

"Oh Hagrid…" Neville couldn't help but face-palm

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

"Weird. The writer makes him sound like some kind of caveman." Harry frowned; "I don't remember thinking that…he did scare me a bit though…" he trailed off

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yeh dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."**

"Why is that always the first thing anyone who knew my parents says about me?" Harry sighed

"It's probably because no one ever had the chance to know you. They knew your parents but not you, so they go off of what they know." Hermione sighed, knowing how much her friend hated being thought of as a copy of his father

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.  
"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant.**

"Maybe Hagrid's not as stupid as I thought." Lucius grinned

**He reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

"See. Absolutely useless."

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

"See Harry, you have to be the one narrating the book. Who else thinks like that?" Hermione chuckled

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, **

"Don't even think about it Mione" Harry interrupted himself as he continued reading without giving her a chance to respond

**turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing?**

"I never knew he favored Slytherin so much." Snape drawled in amusement

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Oh yeah Potter, that was _so_ polite."

"Shut it Malfoy"

"See what I mean. No manners."

No sooner had Draco said that then he found himself having to dodge the largest book, chucked at him from Voldemort.

Wondering why Tom had reacted so violently, but unwilling to start a fight Harry continued reading

**The giant chuckled. **

"Stop calling him a giant!" Hermione howled

"Get over it Mione, it's not like I knew." Harry hissed, annoyed with his friends nagging

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"_NO_. Hagrid should never be allowed anywhere near liquor." shrieked Neville, earning himself a confused glance from Voldemort and Draco, but a series of sage nods from the others.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled crisp packets in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warm rush over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

"I thought the oaf wasn't allowed to use magic." Draco blinked in confusion

"First, Hagrid is a friend of mine, NOT an oaf." Harry growled, his eyes flashing in annoyance "And second, he's allowed to use magic when he runs errands for the headmaster."

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy packet of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs and a bottle of some amber liquid which he took a swig from before starting to make tea.**

"Why bother making tea when he already has whisky?" Draco wondered

"The tea's obviously for Harry, besides Hagrid knows better than to drink in front of firsties."

**Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little.**

**Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"Your son doesn't need any fattening" Draco scoffed

**The giant chuckled darkly.  
"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' any more, Dursley, don' worry."**

"Stupid coincidence." Draco muttered as everyone chuckled quietly

**Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."**

**"Er - no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"Why are you apologizing?" Lucius asked

"Have you ever seen Hagrid mad?" Harry chuckled

"Good point." he shuddered

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learnt it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

"Well that's a bit harsh." Hermione sniffed

**Harry thought this was going a bit far.**

"See? Now you're gonna think he's insulting you."

**He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.  
"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do maths and stuff.**

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

**"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

**"What? My - my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

"Typical Harry, ask about your parents and skip over the part about you." Hermione smiled, shaking her head fondly

**"Yeh don' know ... yeh don' know ..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.  
"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

"Shame." Tom drawled

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"Forbid him?" Lucius sneered, "Like you could stop him."

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid.**

"Not a bad idea." Tom growled

**"Harry - yer a wizard."**

**"I'm a what?"**

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read[…]**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"That's your first question? I was asking all sorts of questions about magic and Hogwarts, but you just ask about the owl?" Hermione gapped

"I didn't care about where I was going or why nearly as much as I cared about leaving the Dursleys." Harry shrugged before nonchalantly continuing to read

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled out an owl -**

"Oh my!" Hermione giggled

"That poor owl." Neville said, trying to look serious but failing

**a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill and a roll of parchment. With his **tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note which Harry could read upside down:

"Wow." Hermione giggled, "Not even at Hogwarts yet and already you're being too curious for your own good."

"And doing the impossible in the process." Neville added, "Have you ever seen Hagrid's writing?"

**Dear Mr. Dumbledore,  
Given Harry his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.  
Hagrid.**

"He mentions the weather, but not your pathetic relatives?" Tom glowered, receiving a shrug in response

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was normal as talking on the telephone.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

"There would've been a riot if you didn't come." Snape muttered

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard, indeed!"**

"Stamp it out! Do you have any idea how dangerous it can be to do that to someone? They're own magic can turn against them!" Hermione shrieked, grabbing her best friend in a bear hug

"Granger is correct." Snape growled, seeing the boy's confused look and remembering his own childhood. "You're lucky to have escaped permanent harm."

No one noticed the way Tom seemed to pale as Harry began reading again, Hermione still hanging on to him

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?** **Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats.** **I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak!** **But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"So what?" Neville growled, "She did all that because she was jealous?"

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed like she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"She probably has." Snape drawled quietly, heard only by Lucius

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"That's one way to explain it." Voldemort smirked

**Harry had gone very white.**

"Ohh. Queue the Harry Potter temper again." Hermione giggled, loosening her grip on Harry's arm

**As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.  
"I never expected this," he said in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'"**

"I don't even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn't told me." Harry shuddered, "Especially considering who the first person I talked to was."

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it ..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

**"Who?"**

"That's one part." Neville giggled

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went ... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was ..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

"He won't say it." Tom smirked

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort."**

"…."

"You actually got _Hagrid_ to say the name?" Draco asked, awed

"Like I said, Harry's always doing the impossible." Neville chuckled

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches ... Terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

"I was only two damn weeks away too." Voldemort sighed

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew.**

**Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day!**

"I understand my mum, but how the hell did my dad get the title." Harry mused, interrupting himself again

"Favoritism." Snape snarled, glaring at Harry until he continued reading

**All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' – **[…] **You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. **[…] **But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh -took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry.**

**No one ever lived after he decided to kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby an' you lived."**

Harry paused, not wanting to read the next few lines; finally noticing the looks he was getting, he sighed and continued as if nothing was wrong

**Something very painful was going on inside Harry's mind.**

**As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life - a high, cold, cruel, laugh.**

"How did you remember?" Tom whispered to himself, "I can't."

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon.**

**Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now you listen here, boy," he snarled. "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured -and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with all these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end - "**

"Wait… I didn't notice it then, but did Vernon just imply that he knew my parents before they died? I always assumed Aunt Petunia only told him after I showed up on the stoop; why would she tell her husband about my parents if she didn't have too?"

"I don't know Harry, but you might want to look into that once we get out of here." Hermione frowned, giving him one last squeeze before fully releasing him and relaxing back into her seat.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt up from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat.**

"What's with the umbrella?" Draco asked

"You'll see." Harry laughed

**Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley - I'm warning you - one more word ..."**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"What else is new?" Neville laughed

**"But what happened to Vol- sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"Why Harry, did you just call him you-know-who? I never thought I'd see the day." Neville smirked

"Believe me Nev, I get over it quickly enough."

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see ... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go? Some say he died.** **Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who were on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

At this Harry stopped reading long enough to smirk at Voldemort. And then...Tom went and did something that shocked even himself... He stuck his tongue out at him, earning a knowing look from Lucius and Snape.

Chuckling, Harry continued to read.

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.**

"Such a pessimist." Hermione sighed

**A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?**

**If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world,**

"Ha! You admit it." Tom grinned

"Yep. But I still beat you don't I?" Harry smirked

**how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you were scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it ... every odd thing that had ever happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry ... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach ...dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back ...And the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Harry chuckled, reminiscing

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Bad move." Hermione sung

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled over his head. "NEVER -" he thundered, "- INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley -**

**There was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal and next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.**

"What'd he do?" the Draco asked, sitting forward in his seat

**When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

"Couldn't have done it better myself." Tom laughed

At this, the Slytherins joined the others (except Harry) in laughter.

Harry simply rolled his eyes and continued reading.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

With this, any sanity that had managed to restore itself instantly shattered.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job -"**

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

**"Why were you expelled?"**

Harry stopped reading and glared at Tom, who just sighed,

"I was desperate." he muttered, loud enough for only Harry to hear.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly.**

**"Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.  
"You can kip under that, he said. "Don't' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

Reading the last words, Harry chucked the book at Lucius' head.

"Here, you should find a piece of the next chapter _VERY_ interesting." Harry chuckled, remembering the day he first met Draco and wondering what Lucius' reaction would be.


	6. Diagon alley, rants, and casing the bank

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

A/N 1: PLEASE READ. I've recieved a few PMs and reviews telling me that I'm missing parts of the book, as I explained earlier chapters I've intentionaly left out small portions of the book. The characters are still reading these portions, but they are not commenting of them so I saw no reason to include them in the story.

A/N 2: I have also recieved a few PMs asking me if I have the full story as it was origionaly posted. I DO have all the origional chapters saved to my computer, so if you are interested in reading them as they were origionaly posted feel free to email or PM me with your email address and I will send you a copy. Be aware that I have made a number of small alterations to the story and that the origional only got as far as a few chapters into book 2.

* * *

Picking up the book and rubbing the spot where it had connected with his head, Lucius began to read.

**DIAGON ALLEY**

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

**"It was a dream," he told himself firmly. "I dreamt a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."**

"I never knew you were so delusional Potter." Lucius smirked

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him.**

**The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.**

At this there were many chuckles, at least until they saw the glare Harry was directing at them.

**He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered to the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl -"**

**"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

**"What?"**

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

"Dear God. He'll get lost. NOOO. Don't do it." Hermione suddenly screamed "Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. I've lost my marbles! Where are my marbles? Ahhhhhh"

"I'll say she has." Harry sighed, "Just keep reading."

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something which made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"Feeling a little de-flatted, huh Potter." Draco cooed

"Ewww" Everyone shuddered at the unintentional innuendo

"I didn't mean THAT." he screamed, blushing wildly as his father read on quickly

Turning his attention back to the book as Lucius continued to read, Harry groaned, remembering how confused he'd been about the wizarding world. What was worse was that he wasn't convinced he knew any more about the world now than he did before.

**"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. **

"Is it just me or did that seem like a challenge? Two gallons says Harry'll try that at one point." Neville chuckled, knowing it was just the kind of thing Harry would do."

"You're on Longbottom. There's no way Potter would steal something from the Goblins." Draco drawled, "Dark magic or no, he's still far to goody-goody to rob anything.

**Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you - gettin' things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see."**

"Oh course the old fool would start hinting at everything already." Snape sighed

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

**"Flew," said Hagrid.**

**"Flew?"**

"You mean to tell me that there's actually a broom strong enough to hold him?" Neville gasped

"I don't think that's possible." Harry frowned, "Maybe he rode a hippogriff or something?"

"It's possible, but I don't think

**"Yeah - but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

At this Harry burst into laughter

"….."

"What's so funny Harry?" Hermione asked, puzzled

"The first thing I thought of was him flapping his arms like a bird."

"Oh my" she laughed, "that would be an odd sight."

The others were also chuckling at the thought of the wild gamekeeper flapping around in the air, although the adults did a much better job of hiding it

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter - er - speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

"Of course not." Neville snickered, "Harry is too curious to turn down the chance to see magic again."

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. **

"See." Neville smirked, getting smacked upside the head by Harry

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

"Already canvassing the place Harry?" Tom smirked, taking no notice of his use of Harry's first name

"Quiet you. At least if I ever do rob the place I'm sure I'll do a much better job of it then you did." Harry smiled

**"Spells - enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there are dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper**

"Ok. I want in on this bet. Three gallons says he successfully robs the bank." Hermione sighed, smiling fondly at her glaring friend

**Harry had learnt from Uncle Vernon that people like to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life**

"What happened to these manners once you got to school?" Snape grumbled

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

"Aren't they always?" Harry sighed, zoning out as his book self talked to Hagrid about the ministry; the government was one of the things he was hoping to help change once the war was over. Shaking his head to clear it, he tuned back into the reading.

**"Hagrid," said Harry panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"**

**"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

**"You'd like one?"**

**"Wanted one ever since I was a kid."**

"Yeah, and look how that turned out?" Harry laughed, thinking of Norbert and ignoring the questioning looks he was getting from the slytherins

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**

**Uniform  
First-year students will require:  
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

"I still don't understand why they make us buy those ugly things. It's not as though anyone ever wears them anyway." Draco muttered

"Hey now," Harry interrupted, pretending to pout "I happen to think those hats are very useful; they put out fires.

Confused but seeing that Potter wouldn't say anything more on the topic, Lucius continued reading

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

"I never understood why that was." Draco frowned, not noticing the way Harry and Neville groaned

"Slave labor," Hermione screeched, "you need to have tags on your clothes so that the oppressed elves can pick up your stinky clothes, wash them, and bring them back to the right person."

"Mione," Harry sighed, breaking into her rant "I've told you the elves LIKE working for people; It's symbiotic, working for people offers them protection and greater access to their magic. If they didn't work for people they'd be miserable and slowly lose their magic, ask Dobby."

Seeing the way she glared at him but seemed to settle down, he continued "I'm sure if you talked to Dobby you'd understand, until then just sit and relax. We'll talk during the break."

"Can we continue reading now?" Neville addressed to Lucius, receiving a nod

"You have to be careful about mentioning anything house-elf related around Mione." Neville whispered to Draco once Hermione's attention was back on the book

**Set Books  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk  
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot  
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling  
A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch  
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore  
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander  
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble**

"I still wonder rather or not their names affected their choice of career." Harry mused aloud, receiving a few shrugs

**Other Equipment  
1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set glass or crystal phials  
1 telescope  
1 set brass scales**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**

"Hey, wait a minute. Why didn't Ron ever get in trouble over Scabbers?" Hermione asked

"The headmaster doesn't really care about what pets you bring, as long as they're not dangerous." Snape explained

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

"For a famous place I still think it's kind of grubby and unimpressive." Harry frowned

"It's really only famous as a landmark Potter. Not as a good place to stay or visit." Malfoy explain, rolling his eyes

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.**

"They can't. You should have been their when I brought my parents to the alley for the first time. I had to physically grab them and drag them in; otherwise they would have just walked straight passed it." Hermione explained, now appearing to have calmed down completely

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. **

"Always good to know you haven't changed much in the last few years." Neville chuckled

**A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut.**

"A gummy Walnut? Really, Harry. How does a person look a gummy walnut?" Hermione giggled

"Wait. Did you mean gummy as in toothless or gummy as in sticky?" Neville questioned, not receiving an answer

**"Good Lord," said the barman, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?"**

"Na...It's some other eleven year old with a lightning bolt scar." Harry spat, "God I hate when people react like that."

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.  
"Bless my soul," whispered the old barman. "Harry Potter ... what an honor."**

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.  
"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

"I'm sorry, did I go somewhere."

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and, next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

"I bet you just loved that Potter." Snape sneered, falling back into old habits

"No actually." Harry hissed, giving no other answer as Lucius continued reading

**"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

**"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

**"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter."**

**"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you. Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"**

"I bet you just made his year." Hermione giggled, remembering the excitable wizard they'd met at headquarters

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

**"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

**"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."**

"Ugg…that stupid stutter got old fast. He even stuttered in his sleep." Tom remarked with disgust, receiving odd looks from those who didn't know about his possession of Quirrell

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

**"D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" he laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

"If there was one thing Quirrell was good at it was acting." Harry sneered

"What do you mean Potter?" Lucius questioned, putting the book down

"You didn't tell them?" Harry grinned, turning to Tom and ignoring Lucius

"I never saw a reason to publicize my failures." Tom grumbled, "Besides, I had more important things to do after my resurrection than gossip about the past. Now continue to read Lucius, before I lose my patience."

**"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

**"Oh, yeah, poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject - now, where's me umbrella?"**

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming.**

"Swim. Swim for your life" Hermione screamed, while the room played the JAWS theme

"I think she's finally lost it." Nev. whispered to Harry, who just shook his head confused by her bizarre mood swings, or the Room's for that matter. He couldn't help but think that there was something wrong with his best friend, she'd been acting a bit odd since school started, but being in the room was making her odd behavior blatantly obvious. Noting the way Tom seemed to be watching him he turned back to the reading, realizing that he had missed the paragraphs entailing his entrance into the alley

**"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him.**

"No. I thought it was a unicorn." Draco scoffed

**The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

**Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn,  
So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there.**

"I love that spell, quite clever really. You cast it on yourself every time you read the poem." Hermione explained, grinning

**"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

""Jeeze. Why does he keep telling me that?" Harry groaned, ignoring his friend's laughter

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

"For someone who isn't thinking of robbing the place you sure seem to have cased the joint well." Tom smirked

**"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog-biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely.  
"That seems to be in order."**

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

"So you were with him when he retrieved the stone? No wonder you figured everything out so quickly" Voldemort sighed

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

**Griphook was yet another goblin. **

"Nope. Draco said they were unicorns so ha." Hermione joked

**Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog-biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

"The better question is 'do you know why you-know-who was after the you-know-what'?" Neville smirked, ducking the swat Harry aimed at his head and expertly ignoring the glare directed at him from Snape

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously.**

**"Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

**Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

"Doesn't that sort of defeat the point though? If the carts drive themselves then anyone who tries to rob the place doesn't even have to know how to get where they're going, the cart will just take them there. Even if they only work for goblin magic, I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to either bribe or imperio a goblin." Harry frowned, "I hadn't thought of that before."

"Yeah Potter. I have no clue how anyone could believe you were thinking of robbing the place." Draco drawled sarcastically

"Hush Draco, and keep reading Lucius." Tom ordered, appearing oddly annoyed by the conversation.

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but was too late. They plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

**"I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

"Honestly Harry. You've just been tossed into the wizarding world, there's a goblin sitting in front of you, and you're racing down a mine at 100 mph, and that's the first question you ask?" Hermione joked

"Yep. Now stop interrupting, I seriously don't know what's gotten into you."

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."  
He did look very green and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees trembling.**

"I have never been so glad that I don't own a vault." Hermione grimaced, there was a reason she didn't like flying after all.

"You do know that you'll eventually have to start one right? At least if you plan on living and working in the wizarding world."

"Yeah. I know, but since I'm muggleborn and don't require a high security vault I think I'll rent a surface vault."

Seeing that Potter and the mudblood had finished speaking, Lucius continued reading

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped.**

"**Your vault had green smoke?" Lucius asked, looking startled**

"**Yeah. So?"**

"**Your vault likely has a colony of **Haltija in your Vault. It's not uncommon amoung the oldest vaults, though I'm surprised your family would have them.**"**

"**Haltisa?" Harry questioned**

"Haltija Harry, they're tiny Finnish spirits similar to pixies, which set up colonies in caves or other undisturbed areas. They produce gaseous green vapors when startled and were often used as guardians in vaults, wine cellars, and other rarely used locations because they're notoriously vicious when protecting their homes. They're also believed to form bonds with family lines since they never attack their housing families unless threatened.

"Thanks for the lecture Granger, but I was mealy taken aback that Potter's ancestors would use such a defense." Lucius sneered

"Watch it Malfoy, she just gets excited at times so I'd appreciate it if you would just focus on reading." Harry growled, stepping in before Lucius could say anything to upset his pseudo-sister "Though I thank you for explaining about the Finnish things, I'd wondered why my vault had green smoke when the Weasley's vault and vault 713 didn't."

**Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep?**

Noticing that his friends were muttering to each other he decided to ignore the next few paragraphs and eavesdrop, amused at overhearing their plans for revenge on his relatives. They kind of reminded him of how he and Ron used to plan outrageous and impractical ways to get Malfoy expelled. Sighing at the memory and wondering if Ron would ever come to his senses, Harry turned his attention back to the reading.

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

**"About once every ten years," said Griphook, with a rather nasty grin.**

**Harry was […] leant forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first he thought it was empty.**

**Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but he knew better than to ask.**

"That's all! That's all you knew! How did you manage to figure out my plans, from that?" Voldemort roared, jumping up and beginning to pace around the room

"Sit down. We already know I beat ya, but I'll admit that it took all three of us most of the year to figure everything out." Harry answered, pulling him back onto the couch and motioning for Lucius to continue.

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

**One wild cart-ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money.**

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? Hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

"Oh no." Draco moaned, suddenly realizing just why Potter chose his father for this particular chapter, and doing his best to disappear into the couch.

**"Hogwarts dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."**

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes.**

**"Hullo," said the boy, "Hogwarts too?"**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice.**

"Draco, this is you I assume?" Lucius questioned

"Yeah. But remember…I didn't know it was him."

**"Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

"HEY. He's/I'm nothing like that muggle." both Malfoys spat

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.  
"No," said Harry.  
"Play Quidditch at all?"  
"No," said Harry again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

**"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

**"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

"And queue the moment where Malfoy sticks his foot in his mouth and Harry stops wanting to say anything interesting to him." Hermione giggled, having heard about what happened

Draco just groaned and sunk further into the couch

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding towards the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.**

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage -lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

"Actually, according the Hagrid it was my dad and his friends who set his bed on fire." Harry snickered

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

**"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer.**

**"Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"  
"They're dead," said Harry shortly.**

**He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

**"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"**

""Strange to think how different things may have been if you hadn't been such a bastard that day" Harry hummed, amused at the way Draco seemed to pout

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

**Before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

"Draco…..we're gonna have a little…chat… after this." Lucius said, masking his emotions, and continuing before Draco could argue.

**"What's up?" said Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote.**

**When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"A catastrophe if ever there was one." Neville agreed

**"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.  
"-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in -"**

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents were wizardin' folk - you saw 'em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum!** **Look at what she had fer a sister!"**

**"So what is Quidditch?"**

**It's our sport, wizard sport. It's like - like football in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"No it isn't" Harry and Draco huffed, neither noticing the other

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There are four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.**

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

**"Vol - sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"  
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

"It's kind of odd that Hagrid would say that, after all you were in school together." Harry frowned, wondering if Hagrid even knew Tom was Voldermort

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts […] Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

"Wanna bet?" Hermione laughed, seeing the looks directed at her (and ignoring Harry's glare) she explained that she's seen Harry read and practice curses from that book in the library only a few weeks into their first year.

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"),but they got a nice set of brass scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the apothecary's, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.**

**Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery black beetle eyes (five knuts a scoop).**

"See professor," Neville smirked, "Harry looks like he was actually very interested in potions before he met you."

**Outside the apothecary's, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.  
"Just yer wand left - oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

**Harry felt himself go red.**

**"You don't have to -"**

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer an animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at **

"Someone should have told that to my uncle." Neville sighed

**-an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin'."**

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage which held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. **

**Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.**

"Everyone -pureblood or muggleborn- looks forward to that the most." Lucius commented

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he'd entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

"One of the benefits of having a shop in the same spot since 382 BC is that you get a chance to build layer upon layer of protective wards, I'd wager that Ollivander's is better protected and warded then both Hogwarts and Gringotts." Tom explained

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question.**

"Of course not. Every newspaper was printing stories about you and reminding people that you were starting school that year. I'd have been surprised if he didn't expect you to show up." Draco scoffed, rolling his eyes

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

**Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

**"And that's where..."  
Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. "I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out in the world to do..."**

"What? He wouldn't have sold it to me!" Tom snarled, "The old fool didn't have any problem with me when he first handed it to me."

"Calm down Tom. It doesn't make a difference, you have your wand so it doesn't matter what he would have done if he had known." Harry placated, "Now sit down and let Lucius finish the chapter."

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

"I'm sure that after spending so many hours building each wand the last thing he wants to hear is that it's been snapped." Harry mused

**"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

**"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"Oh, no, sir, he wouldn't do that." Hermione giggled

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Potter. Let me see."**

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.**

**As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns or dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

"Which is why I'm glad you finally have a wand of your own Nev. Your spellwork has already improved." Harry praised, smiling at his friend

**"Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander took it out of his hand almost at once.**

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"**

**Harry tried - but he had hardly raised it when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

**"No, no - here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out." **

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"If the headmaster is to be believed then Ollivander loves getting hard customers into his shop." Snape huffed

**"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.**

"Oh course Harry's wand would be an 'unusual combination'. He never can do anything normally." Neville snorted

**He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on the walls.**

**Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious..."**

"Curious-er and curious-er." Hermione giggled, ignoring the way everyone was looking at her

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"**

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter.** **Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother - why, its brother gave you that scar."**

"….."

The Slytherins (minus Tom) were dead silent

"Should we try to snap them out of it?" Neville asked

"Give them a moment." Tom sighed

But two minutes latter Harry's patience snapped. Leaning over to whisper something to Hermione, he handed her her wand.

Concentrating on her spell work, she formed three spheres of flame and chucked them at the trio.

A split second latter all three sprang to their feet trying to douse the flames that were consuming their robes.

"Ah…Good ol' portable flame. Perfect for every occasion." Hermione chuckled, clearly remembering the last time they'd set Snape on fire using that spell.

Tom just chuckled

"Keep the wand. I'll probably return them all later anyway."

"What? Why?"

"The room won't let any harm come to us and there's no reason everyone shouldn't be allowed to do basic charms."

Once the Slytherins had successful stopped, dropped, and rolled (glaring at Harry) they continued reading.

**"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. potter... After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."**

"See Tom. He thinks you did great things, so there was no reason to freak out earlier."

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop**.

**Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; […]** **Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them.**

**Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

"Harry's always quiet. At least if he isn't pissed about something." Hermione snickered

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life - and yet - he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander ... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things?**

"Because you defeated me when you were one; there's no way you're normal." Tom scuffed

**I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol- sorry - I mean, the night my parents died."**

"I thought you remembered everything." Neville frowned, confused

"No Neville. He didn't remember anything until after his first run in with the dementers. I'm sure we'll read about it eventually.

**Hagrid leant across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."**

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yer soon, Harry."**

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"So who's reading next?" Harry asked

"I will." Draco volunteered hurriedly, clearly hoping to avoid the 'chat' with his father.

"Yes. You will. But after our little 'chat'." His father chided, "Potter, can you set up an area for our discussion?"

"You do it," he said tossing him his wand and seeing Draco pale "I'm tired of holding everyone's wands." he said, tossing everyone their wand (except Draco's, his went to Lucius).

"Why don't you summon Dobby for some lunch while we're waiting for them?" Neville asked as his stomach growled


	7. Platform chaos and Malfoy meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

* * *

**CHAPTER 7**

Quickly summoning Dobby to get them lunch, Harry was in for a surprise. Typically, Dobby was overjoyed to serve him, but now he seemed altogether frightened.

"Harry Potter sir, the whole school is in a panic. Theys is thinking you've a been taken. Shoulds Dobby tells them where yous is?"

"No Dobby. Just leave them be." Harry said, thinking. "But gather the DA and tell them that we're locked in here. Tell them we're fine and that they shouldn't worry."

"Yes sirs, Dobby will get your foods now." He said relieved, before popping away.

At this point, the Malfoys reappeared and sat back down. Draco looked rather embarrassed, but none the worse for wear.

Once Dobby arrived with the food and everyone had grabbed some, Draco began reading.

**THE JOURNEY FROM PLATFORM NINE AND THREE-QUARTERS**

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

"From what we've heard so far I very much doubt it ever was." Lucius sneered

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he found in A History of Magic.**

"You actually read that dull history book?" Draco asked, shocked

"Yeah. It's not that bad of a book really, but I wouldn't advise bothering with it."

**His school books were very interesting.**

"Who are you and what have you done with Harry?" Hermione giggled to herself

**He lay on his bed reading late into the night. Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to hoover any more, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.**

"EWWW" Hermione shuddered

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station next day, so he went down to the living-room, where they were watching a quiz show on television. **

**"Er - Uncle Vernon?"**

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

**"Er - I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to - to go to Hogwarts."**

**Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

**"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"**

**Grunt**

**Harry supposed that meant yes.**

**"Thank you."**

"Hey Harry! I never knew you could speak troll." Neville laughed

"It's like a second language to me." Harry chuckled

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.  
" Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

**Harry didn't say anything.**

**"Where is this school, anyway?"**

**"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled out the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.**

**"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o' clock," he read.**

**His aunt and uncle stared. "Platform what?"**

"WHAT! I know for a fact, that your mother often arrived with her family. Your aunt knew how to get through." Snape shouted, motioning to Draco to continue reading when Potter looked like he was going to question him

**"Nine and three-quarters."  
"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "there's no platform nine and three-quarters."**

**"It's on my ticket."  
"Barking," said Uncle Vernon,**

**"Howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see.**

**You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

**"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

**"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"Geeze! Hagrid must have been awfully pissed for the spell to last so long." Hermione gaped

"I still wonder how they managed to explain that." Harry smiled

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk on to a trolley and wheeled it into the station for him.**

"If you didn't find that suspicious I'm gonna start doubting your intelligence." Neville deadpanned

**Harry thought this was strangely kind until he stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

"At least you realized they were up to something."

**"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine - platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

"Tuna really hasn't changed much has she?" Snape sighed quietly

**He was quite right, of course. **

"NOOOOO. How dare you agree with that horse of a woman." Hermione screeched, smacking Harry's arm

**"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile.**

**He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away.**

"Bastards." Harry hissed before realizing just how odd it was that he hadn't been told how to get onto the platform. Ignoring the reading he leant over to question his friends.

"Hermione? How did you find out how to get onto the platform? Did they tell you how in your letter?"

"Yeah. But even if they hadn't told me I would have known where to go because of all the signs they hung up throughout the station. I just don't understand why you didn't see them."

"She's right Harry. Those signs are very large and noticeable, the only way you wouldn't see them is if someone was purposely hiding them from you."

Sharing a look it was obvious who they each suspected, but since there was nothing they could do about it they turned back to the book.

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.  
" -packed with Muggles, of course -"**

"Mrs. Weasley" Harry smiled, hoping she was just being her usual overbearing self and hadn't knowing tricked him.

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him - and they had an owl.**

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his trolley after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

**"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.**

"…."

"Why was she asking that? She knows where it is?" Lucius frowned

"I think she was quizzing Ginny and Ron." Harry clarified

**"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand. "Mum, can't I go ..."**

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

**What looked like the oldest boy marched towards the platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it - but just as the boy reached the divide between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him, and by the time the last rucksack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

"You always did have horrible luck Harry." Hermione chuckled

**"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

**"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"**

**"Sorry, George, dear."**

**"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went.**

"Those guys are genius." Harry chuckled, knowing there was no way they would turn against him

**His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done, because a second later, he had gone - but how had he done it?**

**Now the third brother was walking briskly towards the ticket barrier - he was almost there - and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

**There was nothing else for it.**

**"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

**"Hullo, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."**

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose.**

"UGGG…I just know my description won't be much better," Neville sighed

"Nor mine I fear." Hermione added

**"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

**"Er - OK," said Harry.**

"Wow! Elegant as ever, huh Potter." Draco laughed

**He pushed his trolley round and stared at the barrier.**

**It looked very solid.**

"Believe me it is." Harry growled, remembering the pain of running face first into the platform before second year.

**He was going to smash right into that ticket box and then he'd be in trouble - leaning forward on his trolley he broke into a heavy run - the barrier was coming nearer and nearer - he wouldn't be able to stop - the trolley was out of control - he was a foot away - he closed his eyes ready for the crash -** **It didn't come ... he kept on running ... he opened his eyes.**

"You really are the most pessimistic person I've ever known, it's so freaking strange reading your thoughts." Neville said, shaking his head in disbelief

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.** **The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his trolley off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

" Hey, it's me. That wasn't such a bad description." Neville smiled

"Sure. Whatever you say 'round-faced boy'. Whatever you say." Herm laughed

"Don't worry; you'll probably get a worse one when we actually meet." Harry smirked

**"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.**

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

**"Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

"Whatever happened to that thing anyway?" Neville asked, turning to the other Gryfs.

"I think it died when it ate a www product." Harry muttered, trying to remember

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk towards the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

**"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the ticket box.**

**"Yes, please," Harry panted.**

**"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

"Wow! I never knew they could actually be helpful." Hermione chuckled

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.**

**"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

**"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you-?"**

**"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.**

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"Harry Potter," chorused the twins.**

**"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."**

"Oh him? What, you didn't even know your own name?" Draco smirked

"Well sorrrry. I was getting sick of the whispers and started tuning out my name." Harry hissed

**The two boys gawped at him and Harry felt himself going red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating through the train's open door.**

**"Fred? George? Are you there?"**

**"Coming, Mum."**

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.**

**Harry sat down next to the window where, half-hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.**

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.**

**"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

"…..He was told twice? I can't believe him." Hermione gasped

**"Mum - geroff." He wriggled free.**

**"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

**"Shut up," said Ron.**

**"Where's Percy?" said their mother.**

**"He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.**

"Ah. The warning." Harry chucked fondly, remembering the few times he'd received the same speech

**"Now you two - this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've - you've blown up a toilet or -"**

**"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

**"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."**

**"It's not funny. And look after Ron."**

**"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

"Ickle Ronniekins? Oh god. I have to remember that for latter. The look on his face alone would be priceless." Draco roared, wiping tears from his eyes

**"Shut up," said Ron again.**

**"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

**"You know the black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Harry Potter!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice.**

"Do you know how annoyed she'd be to hear you refer to her as a little girl? She's still has a bit of a crush on you." Hermione frowned

"I know Mione," He sighed quietly, "But I've never led her on and she knows I'm not interested, it's not my fault she can't move on."

**"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please ..."**

**"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

"After reading about your first impression of her I'm not surprised you aren't interested. She really does sound like whiney little girl with a crush." Hermione sighed

**A whistle sounded.**

**"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered on to the train. They leant out of the window for her to kiss them goodbye and their youngest sister began to cry.**

**"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

**"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."**

**"George!"**

**"Only joking, Mum."**

"Hey Hermione, have we ever blown up a toilet?" Harry asked, trying to remember

"Humm. We've lit one on fire….but I don't think we ever blew one up." Hermione reminisced, ignoring the astonished glances she received

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red-headed boy came in.**

**"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

"Like I believed that." Harry scoffed, "He's lucky I was just as interested in him as he was in me, I really wanted to learn more about the wizarding world."

**"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.**

**Harry nodded.**

**"Oh - well, I thought it might have been one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got - you know ..."**

**He pointed at Harry's forehead.**

"So he was always a tactless git? Good to see that some things never change." Neville commented dryly, still pissed at Ron for nearly killing him (even if it was by accident)

**Harry pulled back his fringe to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.**

**"So that's where You-Know-Who-?"**

**"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."**

**"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

**"Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

**"Wow," said Ron.**

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

**"Er - yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

"Why not? Considering how obsessed with muggles Arthur is one would think he'd get along well with scribs as well." Lucius drawled

"I don't thing Mr. Weasley is the problem, from what I've heard over the years I think their cousin is a 'sour-grapes type' like aunt Petunia." Harry explained as Draco continued reading.

**"So you must know loads of magic already."**

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

"Or not" Harry chuckled

**"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"**

**"Horrible - well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

**"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. **

**Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand and Percy's old rat."**

"Stupid, fucking rat." Harry hissed

**"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up.**

**Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a Prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

**Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.**

"It's always been really easy to tell when he's mad or embarrassed; all the Weasley's have the same tell." Harry chuckled

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

"Great friend you got there Potter." Draco drawled

**" ... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort -"**

**Ron gasped.**

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed.**

**"I'd have thought you, of all people-"**

**"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn ... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

"No. That would be me." Neville muttered

"You may not be great at class work Nev, but your one of the best spellcasters I know. You just need to remember that and be more confident when you're casting." Harry said, trying to cheer his friend up "Besides, you couldn't be as bad as Crabbe or Goyle if you tried."

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"**

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.**

**He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry -**

"What are mars bars?" Neville wondered

"Muggle candy bars" Harry replied

**but the woman didn't have any Mars Bars. What she did have were […] a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life.**

**Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts. **

"That's an awfull lot of money to spend on sweets Harry, I hope you didn't eat all that at once." Hermione frowned, knowing how unhealthy candy was.

"Don't worry, I only had a few bites of everything. Like the book said, I just wanted to try everything. Ron ate most of it."

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

**"Hungry, are you?"**

**"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before, or, indeed, anyone to share it with.**

"Stupid Dursleys" Neville spat

**It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties and cakes (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

**"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

"Who would want to eat frogs Potter?" Draco sneered, interrupting himself

"Two words Draco, cockroach clusters." Harry smirked, raising an eyebrow

**"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is, I'm missing Agrippa."**

**"What?"**

**"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - Famous Witches and Wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"Even with all the frogs I've bought for the three of us for holidays and such we still haven't found either of them; I'm beginning to think they don't exist." Harry frowned, "I've never met anyone who claims to have one of the either."

"They exist. I found a Ptolemy in my second year." Tom smirked, surprising everyone who'd forgotten he was there. "If I remember right neither one was very rare at the time, perhaps they've simply stopped making new ones."

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long crooked nose and flowing silver hair, beard and moustache.**

**Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.**

**"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

**"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron.**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

**Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts.  
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**

"If only I'd remembered." Harry groaned

"Why would you want to remember everything on the back of his card?" Lucius questioned

"You'll find out latter." he smirked, seeing that neither Tom nor Snape looked like they wanted to give anything away.

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.**

**"He's gone!"**

"You can't expect him to just stand around all day for you to gawk at." Draco drawled, not noticing the way Tom was glaring at him

"Shut it Draco. Photos don't move in the muggle world, so it startled me a bit." Harry explained, rolling his eyes

**"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.**

**"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

**"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"**

**Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them.**

**Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus and Merlin. **

"Oh Harry that reminds me." Hermione interrupted, digging through her pockets "Sirius got in one last prank before everything." She said, finding what she was looking for and handing a card to Harry.

Looking at it, he blanched "Pleeeease tell me he didn't sign off on this." Harry moaned, receiving a smirk in response

"What's wrong Harry?" Neville asked

Getting up to see the card, he burst into hysteric laughter and collapsed to the floor.

"What's so funny Potter?" Draco sneered before grabbing the card

He however managed to hold in his laughter long enough to pass on the card to his father.

"It seems." Lucius chuckled, looking at the card he was holding "That they've given him his own card."

Soon everyone had seen the card and Harry, annoyed with their laughter, had had enough.

Instantly, there were five very bald wizards -and one witch- screaming in horror.

"MY HAIR! My beautiful hair, give it back, give it back." Draco cried

"Return my hair this instant Potter." Voldemort spat, he was sooooo sick of being bald.

Seeing the looks of horror on their faces, he relented and soon everyone was back to normal (except Draco who was still rocking back and forth in terror, it took a little longer for him to calm down and continue reading).

**He finally tore his eyes from the druidess Clidona, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans.**

**"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavored one once."**

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully and bit into a corner.**

**"Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts."**

**They had a good time eating the Every-Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.**

"I've never actually gotten a 'bad' bean before. The curry one was probably the worst since it was supper spicy." Harry shrugged

"Must be the Potter luck, I've never managed to eat so many without getting a horrible flavor like bile or cooked cabbage." Neville grimaced

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

"Huh. I guess you miss out on that description." Hermione murmured to Neville, "I hope I'm that lucky."

**"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"Ugg. I sound like such a baby." Neville moaned miserably

**"He'll turn up," said Harry.**

**"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."**

**He left.**

**"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could.** **Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

**"I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."**

**He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toad less boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

**"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said.**

**She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.**

"Uggg. Seems I wasn't as lucky as Neville." Hermione sighed

**"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

**"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."**

"Oh dear. Did I really sound like that?" Hermione asked, looking disgusted with herself

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

**"Er - all right."**

**He cleared his throat.**

**"Sunshine, daises, butter mellow,  
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**

"….."

The teenagers slumped to the floor in laughter while the adults simply chuckled.

"Did he honestly believe that was a spell?" Neville joked, "Even I wouldn't have fallen for that."

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened.**

**Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.**

**"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever**

"Gasp….this is hard to read without pausing; don't you ever stop for air?" Draco asked, taking a huge breath and continuing

**such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard -I've learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She said all this very fast.**

"**You're telling me." Draco huffed, trying to catch his breath**

**Harry looked at Ron and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learnt all the set books off by heart either.**

**"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.**

**"Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."**

**"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.**

"You shouldn't doubt her Harry. afterall, she knows ALL about you." Neville laughed, ducking the blow Hermione had aimed at his head

**"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, It sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose**

"Must…stop…for air." Draco gasped

**Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

**And she left, taking the toad less boy with her.**

"Is that what they're gonna keep calling me? The toad less boy?" Neville moaned

**"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.**

**"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.**

**"Gryffindor," said Ron.** **Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and Dad were in it, too.** **I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

**"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers's whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry trying to take Ron's mind off houses.**

**"So what do your oldest brothers do now they've left, anyway?"  
Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.**

"You know…I still don't know what most go on to do after Hogwarts. I know about Ministry workers, shopkeepers, curse breakers, quidditch players, aurors, dragon keepers, and teachers. That's about it." Harry frowned

"From what you've told me about muggles, I think there's a wizarding version of all muggle jobs." Neville explained, "Then there's potion harvesters, warders, apothecaries, and all sorts of jobs. If you want I'll tell you about some of them later."

"Thanks Nev. I'd really appreciate that." Harry smiled, tuning into the book just as Ron finished telling him about the Gringott's break in

**"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.**

**"Er - I don't know any," Harry confessed.**

**He was just taking Harry through the finer point of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toad less boy or Hermione Granger this time.**

**Three boys entered and Harry recognized the middle one at once:**

"Oh no." Draco groaned, trying to read everything as quickly as possible

**It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

**"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

**"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. **

**"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking.**

**"And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

"And here's where you flush away any chance you ever had at being friends with Harry." Hermione grinned

**"Think my name's funny, do you?** **No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford."**

**He turned back to Harry.**

**"You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort.** **I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.**

**"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly. **

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.  
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents.** **They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."**

Both Malfoy's were lucky they hadn't dropped dead from their lords glare, though they might have if they'd noticed it.

"I can't believe you Draco." Lucius hissed, "Wait till your mother finds out."

**Both Harry and Ron stood up.**

**"Say that again," he said.**

**"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" sneered Malfoy.**

**"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

**"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

At this point Draco dropped the book in favor of avoiding the curses sent by his father, godfather and surprisingly –for him at least- Voldemort.

After seeing that they'd calmed down, he crept back into his seat and continued reading.

**Goyle reached towards the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron -**

**Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell. Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle -Crabbe and Malfoy backed away.**

"If I ever have the chance, and can keep from cursing the git the moment I see him, I'll have to ask why he broke character like that." Harry mused, "It's been annoying me ever since I found out who he was."

**As Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once.**

**Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking around the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard** **footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"Uggg." Hermione moaned, hiding her face in her hands

**"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

**"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No - I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep."**

**And so he had.**

**"You've met Malfoy before?"**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.**

**"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."**

"You just let her stand in the door trying to get your attention while you held your own conversation? Maybe Ron isn't the only rude one." Neville frowned

"Forget it Nev. Harry apologized to me way back in first year when we first became friends." Hermione smiled

"And just to reiterate to everyone here, I officially apologize for any UNWARANRED things I may have said in the past." Harry smirked, "But if you deserved it there's no way I'm apologizing."

**He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"**

**"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up the front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there.**

"You know what? I'd always kind of assumed the train didn't have a driver, same way the carriages are horseless" Draco muttered

"You do know that there are Thestrals pulling those carriages, right Malfoy?" Harry smirked, enjoying the way the blonde flushed in embarrassment

**You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

**"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron.**

**"Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

**"All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"**

"Behaving childishly? You were eleven years old, what did you expect?" Lucius questioned, raising an eyebrow at the blushing witch

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there, Harry?"**

"Hagrid's great but he sure had a way of signaling me out." Harry sighed, remembering how everyone had turned to gawk at him after hearing Hagrid call out to him

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

**"C'mon, follow me - any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

"Look Nev, I actually called you by your name here." Harry smiled

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

**The narrow path had opened suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

"I really do love the castle, whenever I'm stressed or need some time alone I like to walk down that path and sit out by the lake." Harry smiled as his friends smiled fondly

"**No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.**

**Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the castle overhead.**

**It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

**"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; **

"Chuckle"

"Shut up Severus." Lucius hissed, blushing

"Should I tell them about our first trip to the castle?"

"You wouldn't?"

"What happened?" Draco interrupted

"Your father had the displeasure of hitting his head on the ledge and falling into the lake. I can still remember him shouting…"Help me, help me. I can't swim." It took him forever to realize that we were already close enough to shore for him to just stand up."

"Shut up you ol' bat." Lucius blushed, "Start reading _NOW_ Draco."

**They all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which had a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out on to rocks and pebbles.**

Draco was startled into dropping the book as harry growled loudly

"Ignore him, he just gets annoyed whenever anyone mentions that place because he can never find it." Hermione explained, ignoring her friend as he stopped growling and started muttering to himself "He must know nearly everything there is to know about this place but he just can't find a way into that cavern."

Still keeping an eye on Potter as he continued muttering to himself, Draco stooped to pick up the book he'd dropped and continued reading

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.**

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

"Who's reading next?" he asked looking around

"I will." Tom stated, grabbing the book and beginning to read


End file.
